Information Bulletin, November 1998

On behalf of the Department of Health, the SPARCS staff would like to
thank providers, vendors, and data users for another year of successful
collaboration. As the holiday season approaches we would like to wish
everyone a happy and healthy 1999. The 1997 SPARCS Annual Report Series
will be generated within the calendar year that is required by our
regulations. A list of facilities that have reporting shortages will be
published as part of the annual report.

It is important that the many users of the data be presented with a
complete and accurate picture of New York State inpatient and ambulatory
surgery discharges for a given year. We are very proud of the continued
improvement in the quality of the SPARCS data being reported, and
appreciate the hard work necessary to achieve a timely, accurate, and
complete data base.

As part of our annual self-evaluation process we have identified
uncorrected record errors as the largest single source of data
inaccuracies on the SPARCS data base. To assist data submitters, the
number of unresolved errors for each facility will be published on our Web
site. We expect this new feature to be available in the Spring of 1999.
Any facility needing more detail to correct these unresolved errors can
currently request a History Report from SPARCS staff.

Year 2000 Issues

SPARCS can now accept the UDS year 2000 compliant Version 5 formatted
submissions as production data. We appreciate the many facilities that
have been taking advantage of our testing process. It should be noted
that Version 5 submissions must now conform to all 1999 SPARCS
requirements. Please contact SPARCS staff if you need a detailed list of
these requirements. We assume the hospital programming necessary to
satisfy these new 1999 SPARCS requirements will be made to the Version 5
format, rather than the soon-to-be obsolete Version 4.1 format. If this
assumption is invalid, please contact the SPARCS Administrative Unit.

We are currently developing a Web-based alternative to the non-Y2K
compliant PCMAIL. In addition, our DOS-based data entry/correction
software, HCNAPPS, is being enhanced to be Y2K compliant. We expect both
software products will be available and operational early in 1999. These
two enhancements will simplify the electronic submission of data to
SPARCS.

Site Visitations

As part of an initiative started three years ago, SPARCS staff have visited
many facilities around the state in an attempt to better understand
hospital and clinic practices necessary to submit data to SPARCS. We have
learned much from these visits. Based upon feedback the facilities have
also benefited. These visits are based on the premise that with knowledge
comes understanding, with understanding comes cooperation. We thank
facilities that have in the past been gracious hosts and look forward to
our future trips around the state. Any facility that would like to arrange
a visit in the future should contact SPARCS staff: otherwise, don't be
surprised if a SPARCS staff person calls you requesting a visit.

UDS/IP Task Force

The Universal Data Set for Institutional Providers (UDS/IP) Task Force
continues to serve as a vehicle for change in New York State. It was
created to facilitate migration to the national UB-92
billing standard. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
(HIPAA) of 1996 will mandate national standards for health care
transactions. The UDS/IP Task Force is now working toward a smooth
migration to HIPAA standards for New York State providers and payers. The
task force meets in September and April of each year. Anyone interested in
participating in this process should contact SPARCS staff.

Roberta Warner, a founding member of the UDS/IP Task Force, is retiring
from HANYS after 25 years of service. Her knowledge and contributions to
the standards movement in New York State will be missed. We wish Roberta
the best of luck in her retirement.

Miscellaneous Items

We encourage everyone to visit our Web site. We are always open to
suggestions about ways we can better provide necessary services and
information. Please e-mail us your suggestions. This year for instance,
we received a comment that our edit reports would be clearer if the common
inpatient and outpatient error messages were numbered the same. We agreed
and the change has been made.